The present invention relates to book coverings and in particular although not exclusively to book coverings for protecting the dust jackets of hardback books.
One popular existing design for protecting the dust jackets of hardback books consists of a front sheet of a transparent plastics material along with a rear sheet of stiff paper. The front and rear sheets are secured together along their respective upper and lower edges to form an elongate sleeve which is open at each end. To use the sleeve, the dust jacket is slid into one of the open ends, so that the dust jacket design can be seen through the front transparent sheet. The sleeve is then cut to length and is wrapped around the hard covers of a book. To secure the sleeve in place, the leading edges of the front and rear covers are pushed into the open ends of the sleeve.
Although such book coverings have proved extremely popular in practice, they do in use require a certain amount of time and care to be taken. The amount of time taken to cover a single book can be of importance, particularly for library users who may wish to cover hundreds of books.
In addition, each sleeve is of a fixed height, which means that stock in several sizes must be produced in order to deal with the variety of different book heights that might be met with in practice.
It is an object present invention to reduce the time necessary to apply a covering to a book. It is a further object, in at least some embodiments of the invention, to provide a design which can be used with a wider range of book heights.
According to the present invention there is provided a book covering comprising an elongate sleeve having an opening along its length defined by first and second sheet edges, the edges being adapted to overlap to close the opening and one of the sheet edges carrying an adhesive for retaining the edges in an overlapped position.
It is to be understood of course that the adhesive may be applied to the sheet right up to the edge or, alternatively, merely adjacent to the edge. The adhesive preferably forms a continuous strip extending along or parallel to the edge, but a series of individual areas or spots of adhesive could also be used. The adhesive is preferably protected by a release strip, for example of waxed or wax-like paper.
The sleeve may comprise a front sheet and upper and lower overlapping rear sheets, with the opening being defined by a lower distal edge of the upper sheet and an upper distal edge of the lower sheet. In this arrangement, the lower sheet preferably overlies the upper sheet, with the adhesive being provided either on the rearward facing surface of the upper sheet or alternatively the forward-facing surface of the lower sheet. It will be understood that the expressions xe2x80x9cupperxe2x80x9d and xe2x80x9clowerxe2x80x9d will be reversed if the covering is turned upside down, there being no intrinsic xe2x80x9cupwardxe2x80x9d or xe2x80x9cdownwardxe2x80x9d direction for the product. The upper sheet may overlie the lower, when they are in the overlapped position, with the adhesive in such an arrangement being provided either on the forward-facing surface of the upper sheet or the rearward-facing surface of the lower.
The upper rear sheet may be secured to the front sheet along their common upper edges, and the lower rear sheet may likewise be secured to the front sheet along their common lower edges. This may be achieved by means of an adhesive or any other convenient securing means. This could for example be high-frequency welding, if both the front and the rear sheets were of a plastics material. Preferably, however, the front sheet is of a plastics material, for example PVC, and the rear sheets are of stiff paper or card.
In one variant, both the front and rear sheets could be integral one with another.
In one embodiment, the sleeve may comprise a front sheet and a rear sheet, with the opening being defined by an upper edge of the first sheet and an upper edge of the rear sheet. Once again, of course, the expression xe2x80x9cupperxe2x80x9d may include xe2x80x9clowerxe2x80x9d if the covering were to be turned upside down.
The first and second edges may be adapted to overlap when the front sheet is folded back along a fold-line which may extend the length of the sleeve. Preferably, the position of this fold-line is not pre-defined during manufacture, but is simply chosen by a user according to the height of a book which is desired to be covered. Alternatively, the fold-line could be predefined and could for example be pre-folded during manufacture.
In the preferred form of this embodiment, the adhesive is carried on the upper edge of the front sheet. When the front sheet is folded over, it then overlies the upper edge of the rear sheet. It would also be possible given such an arrangement of sheets for the adhesive to be supplied instead on the rearward-facing surface of the rear sheet.
Yet a further possibility would be for the rear sheet to overlie the turned back front sheet. With such an arrangement, the adhesive could be supplied either on the forward-facing surface of the rear sheet or alternatively on the rearward-facing surface of the front sheet (in its folded back position).
The rear sheet may be secured to the front sheet along their common lower edges, for example by means of an adhesive or (depending upon the sheet materials) by high-frequency welding. Alternatively, the front sheet may be integral with the rear sheet.
The invention extends to a book when covered with a book covering as previously defined.
The invention further extends to a method of covering a book and/or a method of protecting a book dust jacket.